Casual Capsule Reviews

This post is from the now defunct website “A GameDev Plays…”, copied here for posterity

Time for some more short reviews of small games.

Hexcells (US$2.99) is a
modern variation on the old Microsoft
Minesweeper
game. Although it is much gentler - rather than game-ending bombs, the
player is identifying certain hexes. If a mistake is made then it is
just recorded as such and the game continues. There is no timer or time
limit, nor any way of scoring other than minimizing the number of
mistakes made. The puzzles are hand-designed (no randomness) and provide
a couple of hours of thought to perfect with mix of basic logic and
memory (as the puzzles do not change if restarted). It is a nicely
polished game with clean graphical style and responsive music. It has no
replayability, but it is cheap and well made. Definitely worth picking
up in a sale or bundle, as I will be doing with its sequels.

Citalis (US$1.99)
involves a great deal of clicking. It is nominally a city-builder, but
in a simple casual fashion that tends more towards clicking and
repetitive gameplay. The players build businesses to earn money in order
to repay a large loan (paid back each day in increasing amounts). The
businesses require water and people. The people require beauty. So the
player has to provide structures that supply these. If either water or
beauty is insufficient then crime rises, possibly shutting down
businesses. So the game becomes a matter of clicking to build business
and then quickly checking if anything else needs to be built and
repeating endlessly. There is very little polish here. The UI is ugly
and regularly blocks the screen. There are spelling mistakes. The
minimal upgrade options are quickly exhausted relatively early in the
game. Citalis is half an idea, rapidly and carelessly implemented with
repetitive and uninspiring gameplay. I feel no need to play again and
can not recommend it.

Collisions (US$3.99) is
a casual puzzle game by the same developer as the previously reviewed
Chains. The
aim of the game is to move your little ball off screen through various
obstacles with various flippers, switches, and other physical items that
move or restrict movement is some manner. There are 54 levels (plus a
couple of mini-games), but it is all very simple and I finished all of
them in an hour. This is a polished but simple game, with an nice and
subtle art style. FYI: I received a free copy from the developer.

Conclave (US$11.99) was
previously a kickstarted web turn-based RPG, but has now come to Steam.
There are the standard cRPG tropes: loot, level progression, lots of
fighting. The gameplay is mainly combat, performed on a off-square grid
by selecting various abilities and their targets. It differentiates
itself with a nice online multiplayer system (if you can find someone to
play) and a non-standard setting (to me at least). There are many
missions, chained together to tell the story, and grinding is kept to a
minimum. The main concern with this game is that in the transition from
the web to a thick-client Steam game it has kept all the original web
controls, making it seem incredibly clunky and player-unfriendly. Click,
click, click. I hope that the developers take some time to properly take
advantage of their new platform, as this game has some potential. FYI: I
received a free copy from the developer as a Kickstarter reward.